How do young Nordic audiences select and consume content in a global landscape?

As a 21-year-old, I am now two years older than the “global natives” who are 13-19 years old. We all belong to the Z Generation. Young audiences skew towards global media platforms, while the Nordic industry tries to reach us. What are the best ways to reach young audiences today, and with what content?

This autumn I got a one-month internship at Nordisk Film and TV Fond (NFTVF), as the Fund has a special interest in young Nordic audiences. Together with my 22 years old colleague, journalist Lina Nystrand, who has a one-year internship at the Fund, I had the opportunity to study how our generation consumes films and series. We produced a video based on talks with other young people from all the Nordic countries, after which I interviewed Norwegian Vilde Schanke Sundet, Associate Professor in media and communication at the Oslo Metropolitan University. The answers from the target group and the scientist were astonishingly alike.

Sundet’s current research project “Global Natives? Serving Young Audiences on Global Media Platforms” decodes the complexities of how young audiences view content. It is set to conclude in March 2025, but results are continuously published online (link below).

In times when media habits overlap: Where are the young Nordics?

Sundet explains that for young people there is no clear distinction between established media and social media. These habits differ from those of older generations: “For young people, the transition between media is more fluid. The media habits overlap, meaning that social media is very important for content promotion.”

Sundet points out that a significant portion of the consumption on social media has its roots in established media: “It doesn’t help to shout for attention on platforms where young people are not present. We need to reach out to where young people are.”

The younger you are, the more time you spend on foreign content. There has been a shift in how much the international global platforms invest in Nordic local content. However, there are still global platforms that support locally made productions: “Particularly Netflix utilises local grounding, but there is a focus on ensuring that the content that works locally can also function globally. They are investing in content that can appeal to both markets,” Sundet concludes.

When asked about how they select content, none of our interviewees (aged 20–27 years) mentioned traditional reviews. To be updated on new films and series, they watch trailers and clips and visit digital platforms like TikTok, X, and Reddit. Swedish Sebastian Albertsson mentions Letterboxd as his tool when searching for specific themes and genres (link to Lina’s article on Letterboxd below). Finnish Alberto Löfman Arranz gets hints from clips and friends: “If I see a clip of a film, I'm like: ‘Oh, that was funny.’ I might write it down and be like: ‘I should watch that film.’ Or it just looks good and piques my interest. But also, what my friends watch.”

All Nordic broadcasters have players with content that is free to watch, but they are not always easily spotted. “I prefer the streaming channels that offer the specific content that I want to watch. I search for it on Google, and then DR never pops up,” confirms Danish Nana Nancy Grouleff.

Checking your mobile while watching

With an around-the-clock attachment to our phones, some struggle to keep their concentration while watching films and TV-series. Statistics show that young people are on social media around the clock, also while doing other things. Sundet explains: “What distinguishes the younger audience is that they often watch series while doing their makeup, studying, and completing homework. Big parts of their days are blanketed by media.”

Norwegian Lotte Grytten can focus better on a film when watching it with friends: “It helps to watch films with others at home, because then you don't feel as tempted to look at your phone or do some work or anything else.” On the other hand, Sebastian explains how some of his friends look at their phones more than the films they’re watching. A cinema theatre gives him a better experience: “I prefer cinema. I get more immersed in the film. It's easier to stay focused, and sound quality is important to me. I can't get the same quality at home.”

Not all films require the viewer’s full focus, argues Norwegian Anna Arnesen: “I feel some films are almost made to be watched kind of with half your brain. If I'm watching a bad action film or just, you know, nothing special, I always have my phone out.”

In other genres, mobile activity can be part of the watching experience. Multitasking influences the industry in many ways, one of them being how filmmakers and series creators produce content today. Sundet brings up the NRK awarded drama series Power Play (Makta) as an example: “The creators notably incorporated small easter eggs, to encourage people to google things about the series. This way, they took ownership of the attention by allowing the viewers to be on their phones, but within the universe of the series,” Sundet says.

Foreign content dominates, but local authenticity attracts

The younger you are, the more time you spend on foreign content. There has been a shift in how much the international global platforms invest in Nordic local content. However, there are still global platforms that support locally made productions: “Particularly Netflix utilises local grounding, but there is a focus on ensuring that the content that works locally can also function globally. They are investing in content that can appeal to both markets,” Sundet concludes.

Alberto Löfman Arranz enjoys the relatability you get with a character when every part of it is national: “There's an enormous value in that closeness you can get with a film that's made in Finnish for Finnish people, about Finnish people.” Many interviewees appreciate that productions today dare to be local. According to Anna Arnesen, there has been a shift to the better: “Norwegian film was trying to be Hollywood for a really long time, and now it feels like they're more embracing the fact that they are Norwegian films, and I think that's a really good thing.”

But being local is not enough. To grab the attention of the young people we talked to, films and series need originality. Icelandic Magdalena Ólafsdóttir explains why: “Today we produce so much content that when you see something that you find original, it really sticks out, and it keeps you on the hook.”

During NFTVF’s 2022 theme year “20-something”, young creators and producers alike wished for Nordic commissioning to allow more fantasy as an alternative to the traditional Nordic realism. Similar thoughts were expressed in our interviews. Norwegian August Westerlund sees that variation is needed, as a Nordic film often “leans into artsy, and a really focused, main character driven kind of a film. So if that's not to your liking, there’s probably not a lot of different films that you can explore.” Lotte Grytten wishes for “a little bit of fantasy, not necessarily the genre”, while Westerlund concludes: “Maybe something more grandiose without being Hollywoodish.”

Beating big global players with humour, the absurd, sagas and politics?

It is challenging to compete with the largest global players in expensive dramas with high production values when the Nordic countries do not have the same budgets. However, Sundet refers to statistics from data analytics company Kantar, which shows that humour particularly resonates with young audiences, thus highlighting that national actors have an advantage:

“Humour is one area where researchers believe local content has a competitive edge. Humour involves many local codes, contexts, and languages, making it resonate well with young audiences locally, and the nuances don’t often cross borders,” Sundet concludes.

When discussing attractive Nordic content, our interviewees mentioned humour too, but also the absurd: “Our lives are very much influenced by social media. In that strange and absurd online world, you feel estranged and not at home. Because of this reality, I think that young audiences connect a lot with absurdity,” Grytten explains.

There is also a wish for diversity and more serious themes, Sebastian Albertsson says about the Nordic industry: “It lacks diversity. I prefer films that are bigger in a sense, more political, more about war and about our society.” Magdalena Ólafsdóttir would like to see more stories that are connected to our Nordic heritage: “Iceland has a lot of possibilities regarding our old sagas. We could definitely produce a bunch of stuff from there and put it on a big screen. It would be amazing.”

How to market for our generation

Our interviewees appreciate that there is a lot of Nordic content out there today, but the question is how to find it. When asked how films and series should be marketed to the new audience generations, social media was the clear answer. Generally, everyone agreed that promotional content had to be organic, fun, honest and engaging – and on social media. Behind the scenes material can be effective.

Just putting out ads there does not necessarily work anymore, explains Arnesen: “Social media could definitely be a big help, but at least for me, when I see an advertisement, I either physically just close the window or I just zone out until it's over. It needs to be a little bit more organic.”

When asked about how to make it all work, listening to and hiring young people was one clear answer.